Senior citizens prefer driving over buses

Nine out of 10 senior citizens on Long Island get around by car and the vast majority drive themselves, a survey has found.

"It's well-known that Long Islanders use cars," said Renee Pekmezaris, vice president of Community Health & Health Services Research at North Shore-LIJ Health System, which helped shape the survey. "But the fact that 93 percent get around by car and so little public transportation was surprising."

The telephone survey of nearly 850 senior citizens found that 83 percent of them still drive their own car and only 2 percent rely on the bus or other options.

The survey, which defined senior citizens as 65 and older, was conducted by Stony Brook University's Center for Survey Research for the Long Island Center for Health Policy Studies. The survey period ran from November to January.

The findings carry implications for policy-makers since Long Island's elderly population continues to grow -- rising 10 percent over the last decade, according to census figures.

Pekmezaris said the survey sought to identify issues and challenges for seniors on a range of topics: transportation, health, social and community supports, and economics.

"The good news is that Long Island is generally . . . a good place to age," Pekmezaris said.

Two-thirds of seniors reported living in their community for 30 years or more, and 47 percent said they were in "excellent" or "good" health.

While most of those surveyed said they were able to handle out-of-pocket medical costs, 13 percent said those expenses were making it difficult to pay basic bills, such as utilities.

Sixty-two percent of men were likely to rely on spouses as caregivers, compared to 29 percent of women. Women, though, were more likely to rely on adult children as caregivers (48 percent) than men (21 percent).

Based on that finding, Pekmezaris said the region "should prepare for the needs of aging women," especially if the trend of younger adults leaving the Island continues.

Pekmezaris is scheduled to present the findings today to the Long Island Center's health policy advisory council.

The survey grew out of a $550,000 grant North Shore-LIJ Health System received from the state Health Department to institute health care planning for the region.